Protest at Munhall Pump - Photo Feature

This digital painting shows how the historic Pump house at Munhall, PA (USA) looks today.

The city of bridges, that is, Pittsburgh, it is famous for steel mills. People believe that this city produced more steel than rest of the world taken together during second world war. Undoubtedly, Pittsburgh has a long history of modern steel manufacturing. And the artifacts all over the region witness this fact.

Munhall is a town near Pittsburgh on bank of Monongahela river where history was written in steel. World famous industrialist Andrew Carnegie established his steel mill right here. This was the most modern steel mill all over the world. New technology and efficient workers made this mill an ideal place to work.

It does not mean that everything was really as good as it appeared to be from outside. There was lot of tension between the workers and the management. There were strikes and a few lockouts. Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers got recognition from the management after long struggle. Because of this union, the management was forced to pay higher salaries to the workers for next three years. Owner Andrew Carnegie thought of ways to destroy the union with help from Henry Clay Frick, who was the chairman of the company.

During a strike, Andrew Carnegie hired Pinkerton National Detective Agency to capture the mill. On the fateful day of July 6, 1892, when the boat of the Agency came ashore, the workers resisted hard. There were skirmishes resulting in death of nine workers and three guards. Dozens got wounded. Frick called over 8,000 guards who immediately captured the mill.

The strike ended within four months. The workers union was dismantled and didn't come to existence until 1930. Frick was called as a union buster and was considered as the most hated person in Americas and the Worst American CEOs of All Time.Munhall Pump House stands tall today as a memorial to the steel workers of America as a reminder of their struggle that made America as one of the greatest nations on earth.

Pictures and text by Anurag Sharma. Click on any image to see it at higher resolution